JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Regular physical activity at or above the recommended levels offers significant health benefits. Wearable activity trackers are useful tools to promote activity engagement, especially considering their use in free living environments. Current research shows moderate improvements on step count in wearable tracker users but consistent increases at various intensities of physical activity are inconclusive [1-3]. Many health-related behavior theories highlight the role of social environments in activity engagement, but the relationship between the use of social elements on wearable activity trackers is not well understood.

Objective:

The purpose of this study was to compare weekly physical activity, approximating moderate-to-vigorous intensity, of adults from the New York City Metropolitan Area assigned to conditions that employed either use or no use of the social engagement physical activity features on their wearable tracker. Additionally, given its importance to activity engagement, exercise self-efficacy was also measured to examine if a relationship existed between self-efficacy and physical activity.

Methods:

The researchers recruited Apple Watch users living in the NYC area to participate. Eligible participants were randomized into one of two conditions; the condition that employed use of the social engagement physical activity features or the condition that did not use the social engagement features about their physical activity for 8-weeks. Participants submitted objective data from their device (i.e., “exercise minutes”) and completed the Resnick & Jenkins Self-efficacy for Exercise Scale at pre-, mid-, and post-intervention. Participants in the social feature user condition also answered additional questions in the post-intervention survey about which social feature they used the most throughout the study. Upon completion of data collection, 112 participants data sets were analyzed to determine if effects were found.

Results:

There was not a significant difference between wearable activity tracker social feature users and non-users on weekly physical activity (P = 0.63), but there was an average weekly increase of 62 ± 20.22 minutes of physical activity across all participants. Among those randomized to use their wearable tracker’s social features, those who reported using the feature that highlighted comparing their data to others’ the most increased their activity by 111 ± 142 minutes per week (P = .02) compared to those who used the competition or social support feature the most. Changes in exercise self-efficacy and in physical activity were also positively related (r = .146, P = .03).

Conclusions:

These results suggest that conscious monitoring of activity on wearable activity trackers can lead to a significant increase in physical activity and comparing one’s own physical activity to others may amplify the effect. With the increased prevalence of device ownership, knowing how these devices can be used to promote increases in physical activity may help those implementing activity interventions. Clinical Trial: N/A